A/HRC/37/58 to indirect discrimination, when facially neutral laws, policies or practices have a disproportionate impact on the exercise of human rights as distinguished by prohibited grounds of discrimination.85 The Committee on the Rights of the Child has emphasized that the right to non-discrimination does not just prohibit all forms of discrimination in the enjoyment of rights under the Convention, but also requires appropriate proactive measures taken by the State to ensure effective equal opportunities for all children to enjoy the rights under the Convention. This may require positive measures aimed at redressing a situation of real inequality.86 65. While all children are vulnerable to environmental harm, some are particularly at risk. To highlight just a few examples: girl children are more likely to suffer from the lack of clean and safe sources of water; indigenous children from the destruction of natural ecosystems on which they rely for food, water, housing and culture; children with disabilities from the failure to anticipate and respond safely and effectively to natural disasters; and children from low-income families from a vast range of environmental problems, including household air pollution, lack of clean water, exposure to toxic substances and a lack of access to safe and clean opportunities for play and recreation. 66. States should take effective measures to ensure that children in these and other particularly vulnerable situations are able to exercise their human rights on an equal basis, and that environmental harm does not affect them disproportionately. For example, States and business enterprises should require that their children’s rights impact assessment procedures take fully into account the impacts of proposed policies, programmes and projects on the most vulnerable. Environmental educational programmes should reflect the cultural and environmental situation of the children involved. States should collect disaggregated data to identify disparate impacts of environmental harm on different groups of children. 87 Environmental information should be made available to children and their parents or other caretakers in their own language. States should ensure that girls, children with disabilities and children from marginalized communities are able to voice their views and that their views are given due weight. 88 States should take steps to enable children with disabilities, as well as others, to play and engage in recreational activities in safe and healthy environments.89 Children at particular risk and their caretakers should be provided with assistance in accessing effective remedies. V. Future generations 67. International environmental agreements and declarations on sustainable development often express concerns about the effects of environmental harm on future generations.90 Indeed, the definition of sustainable development is “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”.91 However, human rights law does not attempt to define the rights of future generations or of obligations of States to them. It is understandable that international environmental and development policy and human rights law take different approaches to 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 See Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, general comment No. 20 (2009) on nondiscrimination in economic, social and cultural rights, para. 7. See Committee on the Rights of the Child, general comment No. 14, para. 41. See, for example, Committee on the Rights of the Child, general comment No. 5, para. 12; general comment No. 9 (2006) on the rights of children with disabilities, para. 19; general comment No. 11 (2009) on indigenous children and their rights under the Convention, para. 26. See, for example, Committee on the Rights of the Child, general comment No. 12, paras. 77–78; general comment No. 9, para. 32; general comment No. 11, para. 39. See Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, art. 30; Committee on the Rights of the Child, general comment No. 17, para. 50. The many examples include the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, principle 3; the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, art. 3 (1); the Convention on Biological Diversity, preamble; Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. See the report of the World Commission on Environment and Development entitled “Our Common Future” (A/42/427, annex), ch. 2, para. 1 (p. 54). See also the report of the Secretary-General on intergenerational solidarity and the needs of future generations (A/68/322). 17